Different
by Black Ice
Summary: Her parents, brothers, sisters, friends, aunts, uncles---they're all mutants. And she's not? Why is she so different? What did she do to deserve this? Scott/Jean, Anti-Xavier
1. Prologue

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Hey. I know, I just finished one story, I should give myself some time to relax. But this idea came to me and It was too good to pass up. Warning: This story contains Scott/Jean and Anti-Xavier. If you are not a fan of either, I suggest you bear with it or not read. 

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Prologue

"Jean, it's another girl...." Katherine heard from the waiting room. She looked around at her abundant crop of brothers and sisters. Two sister, three brothers. Things would be even now. The odds, the votes, the games that Jenna insisted that she was too old for. Another little sister. This placed her in the exact middle of everything. Grampy Xavier would be so pleased. He always had a treat for her, a piece of candy or a seashell. He would be waiting for her when Uncle Kurt drove them home. 

"Get that MUTANT CHILD away from my hospital!" Katherine heard. Screams began to fly from the room where Momma and Daddy had disappeared into earlier. Katherine heard Momma scream. She quickly jumped to her feet and ran towards the room where Momma had gone earlier. She peeked into the room. A baby was slowly floating across the room to her mother's outstretched arms. Her father was lifting his glasses up from over his eyes. Suddenly Katherine felt herself being knocked into the room. A doctor came running as fast as possible into the room, a small syringe in his hand.

"Don't worry, ma'am, it'll be ok," he whispered, trying to approach the baby that was protectively wrapped in Momma's arms. He jabbed the needle towards the baby. Katherine watched as the doctor flew out of the room and the door shut.

"Momma?" she whispered. Both Momma and Daddy glanced in her direction. "Momma? Why isn't the baby screaming like James or Haley?" Momma lay back in her bed, her arms still wrapped around the silent child. Daddy walked to the door and opened it, motioning for Katherine's other siblings to enter the room. He pressed a button on his watch and suddenly, out of nowhere, Uncle Kurt appeared. He motioned for all of Katherine's brothers and sisters to grab hold of him. Katherine warily did herself, but she let go a few seconds later. Uncle Kurt and her brothers and sisters were gone. Katherine slowly crept over to the bed where Momma was still laying. She pulled herself onto the bed and looked at her mother and the new baby. 

Without warning, Katherine jumped off the bed and plastered herself against the wall and screamed. Momma and Daddy looked at her, horrified. She didn't understand why they weren't screaming too. It was the only appropriate response. The baby didn't have any mouth or nose. The baby was quite obviously a mutant.

~~~10 Years Later~~~

"Katherine, I'm not kidding. Get down here now!" she heard her mother call. Katherine flipped her diary open, ignoring the call.

_Today James shapeshifted into a hawk. He soared around for awhile, obviously very scared. Tom and Pat had to fly up to him and bring him out of the tree he was hiding in. I thought that after seeing Mom fly around that he'd be used to it. When James came back down, Mom coaxed him into turning back. When he finally reappeared he was so proud of himself! I've never seen James so psyched. It was like a candle was lit inside of him. He marched around proudly for a few minutes, then changed back, a little more confident. He flew to Grandpa X's office and landed on his shoulder. I don't know what happened, but when he got back he had the same superior smirk on his face that everybody else did._

"Katherine. NOW!" she heard her mother yell. Katherine quickly shut the book and shoved it under the bed where Jenna wouldn't be able to find it. She ran quietly down the stairs and into the kitchen. 

"Yeah?" she asked, catching her mother in mid-yell. Her mother's red hair hung limp down her back. She wordlessly pointed to a pile of letters on the table. 

"You've got mail. But help me first," she commanded. Katherine looked groaned under her breath as she began to help her mother unload the dishwasher and set the table. She knew full well that her mom would and could have done it on her own, she just didn't. Like usual, too many dishes were piled into her arms. Katherine tripped under the weight and five plates tumbled to the ground. They stopped an inch away and seemed to hover. The weight pulled itself out of her arms and all of the dishes seemed to put themselves away. Her mother sighed and looked away. Katherine didn't need to be telepathic like her to sense the disappointment. It seemed like she had inherited her parents' looks, red hair and brown eyes, but not their gifts.

She walked over to the table, the chore forgotten. The letter sat on the table, inviting her to open it. Dejectedly she looked at the return address. It was from PoetryCorner, a contest she had entered months ago. All tired and depressing feelings left her as she excitedly ripped open the envelope. 

"Mom, they wrote back!" she called over. With much less enthusiasm, her mother walked over and watched as Katherine ripped open the envelope. 

"Dear Katherine Summers," she began. "Thank you for your poetry entry. We receive thousands of entries a year for our contests. The choice is a hard one to make and unfortunately, your poem was not chosen for the finals. Please continue to submit and support PoetryCorner!" Katherine sighed and threw the letter into the trash. 

"I know how much you wanted this," her mother began, trying to be supportive. Katherine whipped around. She knew her mother would only be proud of her when and if mutant powers surfaced. Katherine looked up at her mother's face. They both knew that it was the exact truth, that her mother didn't truly care about the contest. Katherine opened her mouth to make a rude response when Haley and James came barreling into the kitchen. Haley began to shoot the table legs with little streaks of ice. 

"Mommy, Grampy Xavier's here." James said. He turned into a hawk and flew out of the kitchen. Haley let out a giggle and followed him, taking dignified steps. She held open the kitchen door and allowed Grandpa Xavier to wheel his chair into the room. Her mother's face automatically lit up and she rushed over to the side of the tired and gray old man. 

"Katherine, will you excuse us for a moment?" he asked. Katherine nodded and walked out of the kitchen. She stopped right outside the door and stood as quietly as possible. She could faintly hear her mother and adopted grandfather speaking. 

"...the tests we ran last week..." she heard her mother say. 

"Negative...I don't know how to tell you this Jean, but your daughter does not carry the X-Gene. Katherine isn't a mutant and all of her brothers and sisters are..." Grandpa Xavier's voice faded to a point where Katherine couldn't hear it anymore, but she didn't need to. She ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time. She ran into her room, her refuge, and pulled her diary back out from under her bed. Without thinking, she opened it to the very last page in the book.

_They're all mutants. I'm not,_ she wrote. _I'm too different._


	2. Mutant

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Normal disclaimer stuff goes here. I only own those who I have made up.

Chapter 1: Mutant

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Not a mutant…the voice echoed in her head. Her parents were Jean Grey and Scott Summers; two of the most powerful mutants in the world. She was their only child who hadn't inherited their gift. She was a freak, an outcast, a failure. She was the one who would bring shame on the family. The one who would bring it down. 

Katherine tried to pry her mind off of the subject by surveying her room. Jenna's things were still strewn all over the place. Her oldest sister wouldn't be returning for days now that she was off in college. Jenna had always held her head high and ignored the taunting of those around her. Her eyes would flash, green-blue-yellow and she'd continue down the hall without noticing the bullies. Every once in awhile, a rotten egg would magically 'appear' in one of their lockers. Katherine and Jenna had always had a good laugh about that. Jenna would move something over to the bed from across the room and laugh about how nice it would be when Katherine finally got her powers. 

She never knew how wrong she was. The two would never joke and compare powers. The others life would always be a mystery. How does she get along in her life without powers? Everybody in the family had been counting on all seven children to be mutants. From the day Madison came home, they'd known that there was something special about her, but the rest of them had had to prove themselves. One by one they'd taken the test, they'd passed with flying colors. All of them except Katherine. 

"Katherine?" she heard. She quickly eyed the door, wishing that she could just see right through it. The tone of voice and lack of knock suggested that it was her mother, but Jenna's voice had always been similar.

"What?" she called back. She didn't want to see anybody. Her mother always knew what was going on, even if she wasn't using her powers. 

"Can I come in?" her mother called. Even without powers, Katherine could detect that her mother was impatient and that there was somebody out there with her, prodding her along. Maybe Jenna had returned from one of her infamous trips out and needed to get back into the room. 

"Fine," Katherine called, not trying to keep the bitterness out of her voice. The door opened and her mother walked in--followed by her father. Katherine let out a groan as his red-quartz glassed face surveyed the room. His distaste for her decoration style was evident. 

"Didn't I tell you to-" he began, but her mother cut him off.

"Scott, not now. Katherine, we have something important to talk about." She tried to say it with a soothing tone of voice, but there was something different about it. Her tone sounded forced, as if she didn't really want to be there.

"You can skip the act, Mom." Katherine said, surprising both of her parents. "I overheard everything. There's nothing to hide anymore." 

"You overheard everything?" her mother speculated, looking surprised. She raised her eyebrow. "How much of everything?"

Katherine looked at her mother. She seemed cocky and sure of herself. She looked different then all of Katherine's friends at school and at the Institute. All of her friends who were mutants had the same glow to them though. A glow that set them apart. A glow...that meant they were a freak. "I overheard Professor Xavier saying that I wasn't a mutant. I'm not a freak like you." Her parents recoiled at the remark, but it made Katherine feel a slight twinge of something she hadn't experienced in a long time. Something called happiness. 

"Well," her mother began coolly. "Since you are not a _freak_ like us, then you'll agree with Professor Xavier. We're sending you to boarding school. He doesn't think that you growing up among mutants is healthy."

Katherine took a sharp intake of breath. They were going to pull her away from her home, her friends, her life. And all because she wasn't a mutant? "No."

"No?" her father cut in before her mother had a chance. "No? I don't think you have a choice, Katherine. I think that you need to listen to us. We know what's best for you. Growing up with mutants; people who you'll never be like is unhealthy. You need to grow up with your own kind."

"No." Katherine said again. "You're pulling me away from everything I know. I'm not going anywhere."

Her parents looked at her sadly. This time it was her mother who spoke. "Do you really want to stay here that much?" Katherine nodded. "Then you may. But I'm warning you. Growing up with people this different from yourself is harmful."

Katherine nodded again and pointed towards the door. Her parents got the 43hint and left the room. Katherine pulled her diary out from under her bed and grabbed a pen off of the headboard.

_I'm not leaving. I'm not leaving. I'm not leaving. I'm going to stay here. I'm going to be different. I'm going to defy the odds. But still, I don't understand. Why am I different?_


End file.
